London by William Blake

London by William Blake William Blake was an amazing poet. He wrote many poems such as, A Cradle Song, A Divine Image, Broken love, etc. Although he did write many artistic poems I chose to analyze the poem “London”. I chose this poem because even though he has written more beautiful one, this title caught my eye because London is where he was born and lived. I truly believe this poem has a lot of meaning to it. It shows sadness and frustration. The poem consists of a total of sixteen lines which are split into four quatrains. It has a rhyming ABAB pattern in it. The first paragraph starts with William walking down the chartered streets. Most of Williams were about his feelings and beliefs and at the time he wrote this it was during the French Revolution. I believe that saying “I wandered through each chartered street” was William saying the streets were controlled. Next it says “Near where the charted Thames does flow”, the Thames is a river in London; William basically says the river is controlled as well. The next 2 lines are “And mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe”. These 2 lines basically state that everyone he sees on the streets of London is weak, tired and in distress. That marks the end of the first paragraph. In the second quatrain the lines are “In every cry of every man, in every infant’s cry of fear, in every voice on every ban, the mind-forged manacles I hear”. These lines to me have a lot of meaning. “In every cry of every man, in every infant’s cry of fear”. These people cry but they are suppressed. They are all afraid. “In every voice on every ban”, Meaning that people were not free to speak. There was not any freedom of speech. “The mind-forged manacles I hear”. All this basically describes people who are suffering and frightened and their feelings are imprisoned in their own minds.